Schwei: Johan Hedberg Saves Devils

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Johan Hedberg came off the bench last Thursday to replace the injured Martin Brodeur at the end of the first period, stopped all 16 shots on goal he faced and both shootout attempts by the Kings to pick up the win for New Jersey.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was Hedberg’s seventh career victory in a game he did not start, the most relief wins among active NHL goaltenders. The only other active netminder with more than four relief wins is the Penguins’ Brent Johnson with five.

Hedberg also stopped a penalty shot in the first period of his shootout win at Nashville on Saturday. The Devils scored on both of their shootout attempts while the Predators failed to get either one of their two tiebreaker shots past Hedberg.

According to Elias, over the last three seasons the only other NHL goaltender to go unscored upon in a shootout in a game in which he faced an unsuccessful penalty shot during regulation or overtime of the contest was the Islanders’ Rick DiPietro on March 19th, 2011 at Florida.

With his two shootout wins, Hedberg improved his all-time record in the tie-breaker to 20 and 6, the best winning percentage (.769) among goalies with at least 20 career shootout decisions.

Hedberg is now 11 and 1 in his career on home ice in shootouts, the lone defeat coming last season at Prudential Center against Buffalo.

Devils coach Pete DeBoer was not exaggerating after the game when he talked about his past struggles as a coach in shootouts.

Under DeBoer, the Florida Panthers went just 13 and 25, a .342 winning percentage, the worst among NHL teams in the shootout from 2008-09 through 2010-11, in his three seasons as head coach.

DeBoer’s Panthers were also just 3 and 16 at home in shootouts in his three seasons at the helm.

Cam Janssen made his season debut for the Devils last week, becoming the 22nd player to be re-acquired and see action with New Jersey, joining Petr Sykora who did so earlier this season.

15 of the 22 players who have returned to New Jersey after an earlier stint have done so since the NHL lockout of 2004-05, with at least two Devils coming back in five of the seven seasons since:

The Devils were 2-3-1 in their six meetings with the Penguins in 2010-11, going 0-2-1 in Pittsburgh. Sidney Crosby, who has not played in a game since January 5th, last faced New Jersey back on December 6th, 2010, registering a goal and an assist in a 2-1 Penguins win.

Schwei’s Plus/Minus:

Plus: 3 in a row. Devils on three-game winning streak just four games into season. New Jersey did not put together three straight wins last season until January.

Minus: Goals. If you don’t count their empty-net and shootout goals, the Devils have scored just six through their first four games.